Australian Court Rejects 'Mushroom Murderer' Erin Patterson's Appeal

A three-judge panel at the Supreme Court of Victoria dismissed Erin Patterson's appeal on Friday and ruled that she should spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to Al Jazeera.

Patterson, known in Australian press as the "mushroom murderer," was convicted last year of murdering three relatives of her estranged husband by serving them a beef wellington lunch laced with death cap mushrooms, Al Jazeera reported.

What did the Victoria Supreme Court rule

The panel's decision removes any chance that Patterson could eventually apply for release. Justice Stephen McLeish, speaking for the court, said the panel had reached its conclusion "after anxious consideration," according to Al Jazeera's report on the ruling.

The court's order means Patterson's original sentence — life in prison with a 33-year non-parole period — has been replaced with a sentence carrying no eligibility for parole at all, Al Jazeera reported.

Why judges denied a non-parole period

"This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated, and stands to be denounced in the strongest terms," Justice McLeish told the Melbourne court, according to Al Jazeera.

The panel found that the scale and premeditation of Patterson's conduct took the case outside the ordinary range for which a fixed non-parole period would apply. McLeish said the panel concluded "the case involved such shocking criminality that it is inappropriate to fix a non-parole period," Al Jazeera reported.

The judges pointed to what they described as an "elaborate series of deceptions" by Patterson, including a false claim that she had cancer to explain why her own two children were not at the lunch, according to the outlet's account of the ruling.

What Erin Patterson was convicted of

Patterson, 51 at the time of her conviction, was found guilty of murdering her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Gail and Donald Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, Al Jazeera reported. She was also convicted of the attempted murder of Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, who survived the meal and testified that Patterson had asked for the guests' advice on what to tell her children about her supposed diagnosis, according to Al Jazeera.

Patterson has maintained she is innocent, telling the court the deaths were accidental, Al Jazeera reported. Her original sentence of a 33-year non-parole period was already among the longest terms ever handed to a woman in Australia, according to the outlet.

Which appeal arguments the panel rejected

Patterson's lawyers argued three separate grounds for appeal, according to Al Jazeera: that certain evidence should have been excluded from the trial, that her cross-examination was conducted unfairly, and that housing the jury in the same hotel as other parties connected to the case compromised the trial's result.

The three-judge panel found none of those grounds sufficient to overturn the conviction or alter the sentence, Al Jazeera reported.

What happens next in the case

Patterson retains one further avenue: an application to Australia's High Court, which Al Jazeera described as her last option to overturn either the verdicts or the sentence. The High Court has discretion over whether to hear such an application.

Al Jazeera noted that Patterson is now only the second woman in Australia sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The first, meatworker Katherine Knight, received that sentence in New South Wales in 2001 for stabbing her partner, John Price, at least 37 times the year before, according to the outlet.

What to watch

• Whether Patterson's legal team files an application with Australia's High Court, her last remaining appeal route, according to Al Jazeera.
• Whether the High Court agrees to hear the case, a discretionary decision not guaranteed under Australian law.
• Any public statement from Patterson, who has consistently denied wrongdoing and described the deaths as accidental, per Al Jazeera's reporting.
• Comparisons drawn to Katherine Knight's 2001 sentence, the only other instance of a woman in Australia receiving life without parole, Al Jazeera reported.